Category: Gifts

I hope you are all having a wonderful Mother’s Day and are able to spend time with your families today. Even if they are far away like mine, be sure to spend time any way possible (FaceTime and Skype are wonderful ways to spend time with your family too!)

I wanted to tell you all about a few fun SALES that are going on today, in honor of Mother’s day, and to announce some winners which I may have neglected a bit in all my chaotic happenings the last 30 days. *Sorry! Please forgive me!!*

First up, the SALES! What Mom (or daughter) doesn’t love a fabulous sale, am I right?!?!

Honey Bee Stamps has some fantastic new release items that you have to check out if you havent already. If you want ideas using the new honey bee products check out my past post HERE or the Honey Bee Stamps blog HERE. As always anyone that places an order is getting a free bee (order of any amount!) and a free matching die to those orders over $75…. BUT for today only the orders that are $100 or more will also get free shipping and an extra special Die and Embellishment pack. This special promotion pack includes special embellishments that are ONLY available for those orders over $100 and not available for purchase. I am totally in love with them but Melissa asked me to keep it a surprise, Nothing like opening a surprise in your happy mail!

Disclaimer from HoneyBeeStamps.com : Valid Sunday May 14th from 12:01am until 12pm midnight, PST. No coupon code necessary. Free-Bees and Free Gift with purchase will be added automatically. In the event that we run out of our special limited edition gifts, another product will be substituted with a retail value of $25 or more. Free shipping valid within the USA only.

Ellen is having a seriously AMAZING deal of 20% off your entire (in-stock items only) order (Not including the special Breast Cancer foundation fundraising stamp which is amazing and I recommend everyone buy!) Click HERE to shop! Use code MOMSDAY17

Right now I am absolutely in love with the new release items from My Favorite Things, Pretty Pink Posh, Wplus9, and all the beautiful Daniel Smith watercolor paints. You also cannot go wrong with the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers or the Inktense pencil sets.

Simon is giving a $20 discount to any order $100 or more! I love the Simon exclusive stamps and dies so if you haven’t checked them out take a look HERE or check our all the new releases HERE. Use Code MOMSROCK

Some of my favorites are the Memory box and Birch Press Design products. They are usually the higher cost items so I wait for sales like this to make my purchase. They go fast though so grab them while you can.

Joggles has some really cool products, especially for mixed media. I have found some unique items here. They have some Mother’s Day specials you will find HERE and they also offer bonuses depending on how much you spend. Check them out HERE! No code needed

I will update the list if there are any more sales that I learn about! I hope this helps with your shopping!

Next order of business is some BLOG WINNERS that haven’t been announced on my blog.

For the Coffee Lover’s Blog Hop post I did HERE, I offered up a little blog candy package. You just had to comment and be one of my instagram followers to win. The winner of this package is: Becca Yahrling

You should have arrived here from the blog of the Amazing, Lydia Fideler! If you are starting with my blog today, make sure you go back to check out Lydia’s post as she is the first person on the hop!

I was so excited when I found out that we would be working with the kind folks over at My Sweet Petunia. I have had my Misti since they first launched and It is the most used stamping tool in my craft room!

Today I have a fun little project for you. Instead of making a card I decided to make this cute little tissue box that holds those purse/pocket packs of tissue perfectly. I took inspiration from the Honey Bee Logo and the My Sweet Petunia logo for my colors.

Today I will be featuring the Bless Your Heart stamp from Honey bee stamps ( and don’t tell Melissa…. but if you look closely, you might see a couple of stamps from our April release coming up VERY soon! I had to sneak something in 😉 Shhhhh! )

Making the tissue box is super simple if you have a paper trimmer, scoreboard, and scissors.

Cut a piece of Cardstock to 8 inches by 7 1/2 inches. I used a piece of Strathmore mixed media paper. Both because I planned on doing some watercoloring but also this is super sturdy for a tissue box.

Time to score! Start with the 8″ length at the top.

Then turn your paper 90 degrees and score again.

Once you did your scoring, take a bone folder and burnish / crease all of your score marks. Then grab your scissors for some trimming.

to make the cutting easy, I first cut along the score lines on the sides that had the double score line close to each other. then I trimmed away the pieces you see above.

Before I assemble the box I wanted to do my stamping and coloring. Because I am working on a textured surface, the misti tool is even more helpful. Let me show you….

I could have lined this up at the top of the misti but instead I decided to use my creative corners to give it a little push upwards.

You’ll see above that my first stamping didn’t go so great, which is normal for textured papers. I Just re inked and stamped again.

MUCH better!

Then I die cut a little hexagon for the tissue opening.

I have a handy little tip for you. Instead of taping your paper down to watercolor. Flip over your misti and attach your projects with magnets to the backside. This will hold your project down while you color or paint.

I sketched out some hexagons with a watercolor pencil by Prima.

Then I water colored the top of my tissue box. The watercolor honeycomb reminded me of the Honey Bee logo and website. I didn’t have a pink Petunia but I did have this cute little daisy (which may or may not be a stamp from a brand new stamp set coming soon) So I painted that pink. Of course my little bee is yellow and black. You can’t tell too well but there is a lot of glitter accents from my Wink of Stella glitter brush pen. And I even mixed a little Gold watercolor in my yellow for the honeycomb.

If I tilt it just right you can see just a bit.

After I was done watercoloring I cut two side pieces to 2 1/4″ x 1′ from yellow polka dot paper and two longer side pieces to 4 1/4″ x 1″. I inked the edges of the yellow paper with some Black ink and for the black & white paper I inked it a bit with some Fossilized amber distress oxide ink and then some black distress ink over that.

I adhered those down with some Scor tape and then glued the small long flap and one of the sides together. The other side of the box i left without adhesive so this box could be refilled.

How cute would this be to hand to someone who has some bad spring allergies or a seasonal cold. I think it would make just about anyone smile. I mean look at that cute bee!

I have one more fun “tip” to share with you all. I love my creative corners but I really wasn’t sure how to store them. I wanted to be able to keep them with my Misti and my mini misti and not have the pieces all over the place.

I had this stampin up box and it was just the perfect size. I took a cd sleeve and made a pocket for the inside to hold my mini misti grid paper, my grid transparency and a scrap piece of plastic I use to stamp on sometimes. On the other side my Creative corner pieces fit perfectly!

I cut my packaging to fit on the inside of the stampin up case.

If you don’t have a case like this you could do the same thing with a 5×7 photo case.

Here is a few photos of the final project. What do you think?

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Next stop on the hop is the talented Ilina! Buzz on over and show her some love!

Here is a list of everyone participating in today’s hop. Don’t forget to comment at each blog post for a chance to win!

I have always been a coffee addict but when I moved to the Seattle area about a year and a half ago I REALLY came to love coffee any time of the day! I thought it would be fun to create a coffee gift card holder but I didn’t want to JUST give a gift card, So I created another little special gift using my Seattle stamp set.

For the inside of the matchbox I added some green sequins, real Starbucks coffee beans, some iridescent cellophane wrap, and a cute pair of coffee cup earrings I made using beads, stamps, and shrink plastic! I haven’t played with shrink plastic since I was a kid and I have to tell you, this was so fun and I am sure I will be making more stamped jewelry in the future!

How about a little blog candy? Simply subscribe to my blog, and follow me on Instagram HERE. Once you have done that please comment below and let me know your following as well as your favorite Coffee or Tea (I am also a Davids Tea fan!). One lucky winner will get a Starbucks gift card (a Seattle Exclusive card) two versafine ink cubes in Onyx black and Olympia Green, two bags of sequins in a sparkly Starbucks Green shade and a semi-transparent white, some sticky back gems, a new clear sparkle brush marker, and an awesome big Thanks stamp with a matching die set! I am ever so thankful for my followers!

Supplies that I have used in my project today are listed below. Affiliate links are used where available, at no cost to you. Thanks!!

We had some leftover gift boxes from Valentine’s day that we purchased at Michael’s (they have several colors in the gift wrapping section) so instead of making a handmade card, I decided to do a (semi) handmade gift box, similar to the one I created above.

In addition to the pink gift box I also grabbed some basket filler shred, and the gift card. (later on we decided to add some candy)

First I chose a selection of patterned papers from Doodlebug. I used this 6×6 paper pad, and I pulled out a selection of colors that I thought would go well together. I die cut several of the traditional shape balloon from the Surprise box die set and then stamped all of the balloons using a shade of ink that matched the pattern paper used.

After the die cutting and stamping was all finished. I took some finger daubers and added a little of the same ink I stamped with to the edges of the balloon. It’s a simple step but it adds some dimension to your die cuts and a bit of pop to the overall design. I also took a white water-based sharpie marker and added a little shine mark to the balloons.

I stamped and cut out the truck and gifts from the Little Pickup stamp and die set and colored them in with my copic markers. I also added a little clear glaze gel pen to the windshield and window.

I arranged all of the balloons on the box, popping some of them on foam tape and a couple I added two layers of foam tape to get a varying amount of heights to the balloons. Using a black glaze gel pen I added the balloon strings. Then I added the truck with the gifts in the back to the box, also with foam tape.

There is a great sentiment set that coordinates with the little pickup stamp set called Sending You sentiments. I love that set but the words “sending you” were smaller and didn’t seem to fit well for my box. I grabbed the brand new Welcome Baby stamp set because it also includes the words “special delivery” in a great font. I curved the words slightly and I stamped those out with black versamark ink. I sprinkled on some clear embossing powder with glitter and heat set. I cut around both words and glued those to the handle of my box.

I think this will be fun for my daughter to gift to her best friend (we are also going to tie a few balloons to the handle before gifting) and I hope that the recipient loves it as much as I loved making it for her.

I hope you got a little inspiration for your gift-giving today. Thank you so much for stopping by!

I hope your weekend is off to a fabulous start! I thought I would kick off my weekend by participating in the Pin-Sights challenge over at Ellen Hutson.com.

You can find out more by clicking the link HERE (and see some AMAZING project entries!)

The challenge was to take Essentials by Ellen product(s) and pair them with one of your favorite companies products. I have really been enjoying the latest Honey Bee Stamps release and decided to pick something from my Honey Bee stash!

I LOVE the essentials by Ellen stamps, dies, and other papercrafting items so this was a great challenge to hop into and jumpstart my creativity. Today I will be working with the Essentials by Ellen Bohemian Garden stamps and Zipper Panel die.

Today I wanted to mix things up a bit and I thought… “What if I used the zipper panel in the back of the card rather than the front?” This way the recipient could see the gift when they opened the card but take the gift card out when they were ready.

For the front panel I did all my stamping in Versamark ink and heat embossed with Hero Arts white embossing powder. I did ink blending at the top and at the bottom with distress ink (colors listed at the bottom of the post) and mixed some Daniel Smith watercolors to color my floral images. I did add a vellum flag out of Essentials by Ellen 40 lb vellum and heat embossed the same as the card. For the final touch on the panel I added some Sparkling clear sequins with some Ranger Multi Medium Matte.

I set the front panel aside and went to work on the rest of the card. I made the shaker pocket from an Essentials by Ellen small stamp storage pocket and Be Creative tape. (I probably would have used my fuse but we are moving and it is packed up in a box at the moment). I printed my message on the same 40 lb vellum from Essentials by Ellen using my laser printer and cut it to fit inside the stamp storage pocket. I added the die cut “Enjoy” which is also apart of the zipper panel die set. Once that was dry, I added the pretty pink posh sequins, Prima beads, and Distress glitter.

I reinforced the center part of the zipper panel as Julie Ebersole has shown in her YouTube video (See bottom of post for video) with a piece of Neenah cardstock that I blended some distress ink on. I added be creative tape all around the back panel edges being careful not to cover the zipper stitched marks. I then added my gift card in the middle and placed the finished shaker pocket down on top of the tape. To hide the rough adhesive edges I made a frame from the large stitched rectangle dies from Lawn fawn and adhered that to the top of the shaker pocket.

I love that you can see the gift card through the vellum but the message still stands out. The shaker adds a fun playful confetti party like feel.

Here is the view of the back . I started lifting the bottom up……

But then I decided I wanted to show you all how cool it looks when it is opened up all the way!

What I love about putting the zipper in the back is that the front stays pretty and intact so you can still display as normal if you like.

This card was a lot of fun to make. Let me know in the comments below if you would like to see a video tutorial on how to assemble a gift card like the one shown today.

If you have never seen the zipper panel from Ellen Hutson yet. Check out this how-to video that Julie Ebersole (the designer) made. The die is just genius!

I know the holiday season is upon us, but in the midst of all the seasonal chaos, we have a daughter who celebrates a birthday (two weeks before Christmas)! So in preparation for her big day, I made two birthday projects. The first is a birthday layout featuring the new gold foil flair button:

I adore these foil buttons oh so much!

My next project is a small gift bag:

I use the hearts flair button here to adorn the fabric rosette and I love the way the gift bag turned out! It’s perfect for holding a gift card, nail polish or any other treasures a 13 year old girl would cherish!!

Every Friday though the summer months we will bring you a new idea/concept using flair. Your not going to want to miss these fun posts! These ideas will come from not only our designers but also super neat flairtastic ideas we find from our customers and other talented papercrafters. Make sure that when you share any of your projects on Instagram or Facebook using flair, that you tag it #FlairTasticFriday. You just might see your own photo featured here on our blog!

This week we will be showing you a few ideas taking flair off your pages to actual wearable art!

Joann added some flair from our Cute Bugs set for her adorable little girl. How precious are these? I think they would be great in the center of a bow as well. Totally adorable, Joann!!

Next we have a few ideas that have caught our eye… Take a look!

These adorable flair ribbons are just too adorable and would make a perfect wearable award or celebration pin. Love this for birthdays, weddings, achievements, and so much more. These were designed by Page Evans.

If you were an 80’s or early 90’s kid chances are you had a jacket similar to this one. I remember wearing my collection on my varsity jacket in high school. (photo found on pinterest)

What a great idea of wearing a bunch of pin back buttons of the same theme? We saw this photo on pinterest and fell in love with it!

I love that these are kid designed buttons. You can read more about it HERE. For a smaller option our “Make your own Flair Buttons” would be a similar and fun idea.

Last but not least we have a photo share from one of our very own customers!

Customer Liz ordered a custom button necklace with her loved ones names inside our glitter heart flair, we thought her daughter needed one as well. Aren’t these two just adorable!

Keep your eye out for our new wearable interchangeable magnetic jewelry coming to TCP’s shop in just a few weeks!

It must be the kid in me that loves flair so much. I loved wearing it then and I love wearing it now. Adding it to my papercrafting is an added bonus.

How do you wear your flair?

Stop by The Crafty Pickle Etsy Shop if you haven’t been by recently. We will be releasing a few little things between now and our next big release. We will also be having a big TCP Birthday celebration in August with giveaways and a brand new exclusive foil flair!

Dont forget to use the hashtag #FlairTasticFriday to play along with us!

Every Friday though the summer months we will bring you a new idea/concept using flair. Your not going to want to miss these fun posts! These ideas will come from not only our designers but also super neat flairtastic ideas we find from our customers and other talented papercrafters. Make sure that when you share any of your projects on Instagram or Facebook using flair, that you tag it #FlairTasticFriday. You just might see your own photo featured here on our blog!

This week we will be showing you some awesome greeting cards by our wonderful design team!!! Each Design Team member uses flair differently to make a fun greeting card …and with this flair it is nice and flat to fit on any card!!!

Here is Joann’s super fun FlarTastic Greeting Card I love how she used the vellum as an overlay to soften the background paper …so great!!! And how she used the Something Shiny Slightly Cupped Sequin to follow your eye down the card for interest!!! And bunching the twine behind the Orange Pop of Flair …i am so going to steal that idea!!!

And next we have Carrie

I am sorry but Carrie makes the prettiest cards I know …they are just so lovely anyone would love to receive a card from her!!! Carrie used Watercolor Butterflies Flair for her fun and whimsical Thank You card!!!

Stop by The Crafty Pickle Etsy Shop if you haven’t been by recently. We will be releasing a few little things between now and our next big release. We will also be having a big TCP Birthday celebration this month with giveaways and a brand new exclusive foil flair coming mid July!

Dont forget to use the hashtag #FlairTasticFriday to play along with us!

This Father’s Day will be particularly hard for me and my family this year. We lost our Dad in February to a traumatic accident.
My Dad was an awesome guy and the life of the party. We know that he wouldn’t want us to be sad on this day, so I decided
we would celebrate him on Father’s Day. Taniesa created some special flair for me so that I could use them to create cards for my
PL album. I have to say when I first saw them , I cried and I couldn’t believe how perfect and how special these were.

First I wanted to create a card using this My Favorite Memory of my Dad flair so I could document that memory of my Dad.

His grandchildren called him Superman, they seen him as a strong man who could get through anything, so I wanted to create
a card to honor our ” Superman” using a custom flair of a photo of my Dad.

Lastly I wanted to share a lovely gift that Taniesa sent to me for my family and me to wear on Father’s Day, how special is this ribbon and its something we could wear every Father’s Day!!

I love how special these custom flair are and how they will help us celebrate and remember my Dad on this Father’s Day.

Taniesa can create custom flair for you no matter the subject, just send her a message in The Crafty Pickle shop and let
her know what you are looking for.

Today I wanted to share with you something new and exciting in our Etsy shop! Starting today, you now have the option to create your very own flair buttons in two different ways!

First, you will need to download our TCP Flair template (found HERE) then print the template on your favorite paper. I used Neenah solar white 80 lb cardstock but anything 80 lb or lighter will work.

Then gather together all the supplies you would like to use to create your flair. You can use different types of coloring mediums, stamps, washi tape, anything smooth and flat will work.

Now for the FUN part! Doodle and color your heart out! Hand letter some phrases for your project life album. Customize monograms or personalized buttons for gifts. Create cute page markers and charms for your planners. Use your favorite stamps (even digi stamps if your handy with photoshop) to create a unique embellishment! Little planner stamps work perfect for this project and most stamp sets have small images that are an inch or smaller. Make sure that you keep your artwork in the center circle, the rest will be cut off when making the flair.

Once you are finished creating your little 1 inch works of art, Cut down the sheet so that it will fit in the envelope you are using. Keeping two or more circles per cut is preferred but not required.

Go to our Etsy store listing HERE to order the amount and type of buttons you would like. If there is a different amount you are wanting than what is listed in our shop just send a custom order request and we can adjust the totals for you. Once you place your order we will send you the mailing address to send your artwork to.

Once we receive your artwork we will send you a confirmation email so you know we have it in hand. We will then cut and create your flair for you and then ship it back. Remember that if you are requesting traditional flat backed flair you will get our signature low profile flat flair style making them perfect for projects that you don’t want to add a lot of bulk.

Usual turn around time is 2-3 business days (sometime sooner) If a rush is needed please check before completing your purchase so we can make sure we can accommodate your request.

Remember, not only can you create traditional flat backed or pin backed flair buttons, but there is other options as well!

I did mention that there was TWO new listings to create your own custom flair. The next option is super easy. Simply grab your favorite papers, Journaling cards, and scraps. Make sure they are NO SMALLER than 2 inches by 2 inches. Pop those papers in an envelope and once you complete your purchase though our store we will send you the mailing address to send these papers in. You can find this shop listing HERE.

We will then turn your collection of papers, cards, and/or scraps into your made to match embellishments! This is a great way to get unique flair to match your favorite paper lines and core kits.

What do you think? Sound like fun? Download the template and give it a try, There is no cost until you actually purchase the package you want to order. It is so much fun seeing something you create yourself made into a fun embellishment or accessory.

I hope you are as excited about these new options in the store as we are! Let us know what you think and share with your friends about this fun new option and you could win a $5 gift certificate to our shop! Click on the rafflecopter giveaway for several chances to win (you can enter every day) winner announced on 6/18/15!

a Rafflecopter giveaway ****Giveaway closed. Congrats to our winner, Tina! I have sent you an email with your Gift Certificate code to the Etsy shop. Thank you to all that entered!****